Midwifery Today Conferences

Attend Naolí Vinaver’s full-day class and be immersed in traditional Mexican techniques for pregnancy, birth and postpartum. You’ll learn how to use a rebozo, discover simple techniques that promote healthy pregnancy and birth, hear about ways to manage breech, and much more. This brilliant Mexican midwife has a wealth of ideas to share—ideas that can be applied directly to your practice. Part of our conference in Strasbourg, France, Sept. 29 – Oct. 3.

Quote of the Week

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

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The Art of Midwifery

If a Midwife Faces Jail

Being in jail is the same for a midwife as being out of jail. You sit around and listen to women tell their birth stories.

— Gloria Lemay
Excerpted from Sharing Midwifery Knowledge, Tricks of the Trade, Vol. IVOrder the book

ALL BIRTH PRACTITIONERS: The techniques you’ve perfected over months and years of practice are valuable lessons for others to learn! Share them with E-News readers by sending them to mtensubmit@midwiferytoday.com.

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Jan’s Corner

Midwives under Fire

We’ve had a period of relative calm in the North American midwifery community since 2002. In an issue of Midwifery Today E-News from July 2001 (http://www.midwiferytoday.com/enews/enews0329.asp), Sandra Stine, CNM, wrote about the history of midwives under fire:

“I am thinking about Yvonne Cryns, Nan Koehler, Abby Odam, the granny midwives and every other traditional birth attendant in this country who has been crucified by the AMA or another source,” Stine stated. “Wonderful, loving, competent midwives have been jailed, lost their homes, spent thousands of dollars defending themselves, or were placed under house arrest while serving families competently. The AMA (American Medical Association) has a track record of prosecuting midwives in almost every state!”

In July of 2002, Gloria Lemay was imprisoned for contempt of court in Canada. A few months later, Mennonite midwife Freida Miller was arrested and imprisoned for contempt of court in Ohio. Thanks to easy Internet access in 2002, the stories of these imprisonments—and of the events that built up to them—were relayed around the globe. Both women were mature adults and both went to prison knowing they had widespread support in the international community. They went to prison with their heads held high and their supporters worked behind the scenes, fundraising and researching to free them. Money and well wishes flowed in from all over the world. North American midwives had entered a new era.

While in prison, Lemay learned that she would be given an award for being “the woman in Canada who had made the biggest contribution to midwifery care in the year 2002.” (Women’s Voice Award). The story of her incarceration can be found at: http://www.compleatmother.com/articles2/gloria_lemay.htm

Lemay is in great company. There are midwives in more than one country who have gone to jail for serving mothers and babies in birth and usually on trumped-up charges. These maverick women serve those who are in jail with them who are pregnant or have babies. In Russia, jailed mothers keep their babies with them. On a recent visit to Russia we heard about a midwife, a mother of six who was jailed for nine months. I heard that she just took care of the mothers and babies who were in prison. I understand that she is out now, but her homebirth practice was essentially taken away from her. So sad for the mothers and babies she served for 17 years. Gloria cannot call herself a midwife and I wonder when the province of British Columbia stole that word. Midwife was a word long before BC became a province. I wonder when the same thing will happen in the US.

One of the reasons California was so keen to get a midwifery regulation law was that several homebirth midwives were jailed there. So there is being under fire and there is really being put to the test with actual bars that try to hold you back. (Midwives can never really be held back.) Others have been persecuted into stopping their practice or getting their CNM certification so they wouldn’t be persecuted in the same way. At least they can keep doing homebirths!

Perhaps we reached a turning point in 2002 in North America. Perhaps the imprisonment of these two midwives was the end of putting North American midwives behind bars. But the persecution of midwives continues in other areas. In 2010, the hot spot seems to be Australia. Many homebirth midwives have lost their licenses on that continent and there is a coroner’s inquest scheduled to investigate the death of an infant born at home in Adelaide, Australia. But we live in an era of instant communication. Thanks to online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as basic e-mail, we can reach out to midwives even in distant lands and support them through these archaic investigations.

— by Jan Tritten and Gloria Lemay

— Gloria Lemay is a lecturer, midwifery educator and traditional birth attendant in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She specializes in VBAC and waterbirth. She has served birthing women since 1976 and is an advisory board member of ICAN and the Canadian Doula Association. Gloria has three grown daughters and one teenage granddaughter. She wants her tombstone to read, “She spoke up for babies.”

— Jan Tritten is the founder, editor-in-chief and mother of Midwifery Today magazine. She became a midwife in 1977 after the amazing homebirth of her second daughter. Her mission is to make loving midwifery care the norm for birthing women and their babies throughout the world. Meet Jan at our conferences around the world, or join her online, as she works to transform birth practices around the world.

Research

A new study published in the July 2010 issue of the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology links induced labor with a greater risk of cesarean surgery.

The study, which looked at 7,804 first-time mothers giving birth in US birth centers showed that women who had their labors induced were twice as likely to have a c-section than those women whose labors started naturally.

“Labor induction is significantly associated with a cesarean delivery among nulliparous women at term for those with and without medical or obstetric complications,” the authors noted. “Reducing the use of elective labor induction may lead to decreased rates of cesarean delivery for a population.”

Midwifery Today Short Video Contest Deadline Extended!

You have until Aug. 31, 2010!

Enter our short video contest on the theme “Birth Is a Human Rights Issue” and you could win a free five-day conference registration! Entry fee is US$10 per video and you can enter as many times as you want in the three categories: Short Documentary, Make ’em Laugh, and Advertise Optimal Birth. The winning videos will be shown at our conference in Strasbourg, France.

Extended entry deadline is August 31, 2010, so upload your movie soon! Go here or more information and instructions.

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Threats to Midwifery in Peru

Peru’s official health system discriminates against poor rural women, especially if they have an indigenous identity, as most Andean women do. The nature of this health system affects birthing women and traditional midwives in particular. This system practices and promotes institutionalized birth or delivery—that is, the Western model of medicalized birth. As a result, an ongoing underground campaign threatens traditional midwives. It is a kind of modern Witch Hunt, in which women who give birth at home with traditional midwives are fined. This has led to adverse consequences in women’s ability to control their bodies and to actively participate in the maintenance and treatment of their health, in their autonomy and in their cultural identity. …

In general, rural Andean women are discriminated against and mistreated by professional health workers at the local health posts and hospitals (based on their economic condition, gender and culture). In addition, traditional midwives are harassed and threatened if they continue with their practice. Most of the time, the health professionals (professional midwives, nurses, doctors and/or technicians) only speak Spanish; they don’t speak the local language—which is Quechua in the Andean areas—and aren’t interested in learning it. Perhaps most alarming is the fact that women who give birth at home with traditional midwives are fined by the health centers when they attempt to register their babies and get their birth certificates. If they don’t pay the fine (which most of them can’t afford) they don’t get the certificate, which violates their reproductive rights (right to choose where and with whom to give birth) and their baby’s international human right to identity. In addition, because a birth certificate is required in order to receive a variety of government services, including health care, these children suffer even further. …

In contrast to public health professionals, traditional midwives belong to the community and know their women best. As a result, supporting and strengthening community midwifery is the best strategy to improve maternal health, rather than focusing on campaigns to eradicate it and making all women give birth at the health centers. This strategy is urgent because in many Andean places now, traditional midwives are getting old and willing apprentices are afraid to learn and practice, in part because of the Ministry of Health’s harassment against traditional midwives. The younger women instead prefer to study obstetrics, risking loss of all this midwifery tradition and expertise.

The loss of traditional feminine medical knowledge—and consequently the dismantling of the community’s feminine social network to support women’s health—has a huge impact in the autonomy of women to control and to treat their bodies (and to know their bodies) because of the consequent total dependence on “professionals” and their medical system, which in many cases, isn’t even available in the community. Birth is one of the last cultural spheres where Andean cultural tradition remains almost intact, despite all the processes of Westernization that have influenced the gradual loss of many cultural features. Birth is a cultural sphere protected by women. Therefore, the changes occurring around birth in these areas have a great impact on Andean women’s autonomy, cultural identity and overall health. A satisfactory birth—in physical, emotional and socio-cultural terms—is pivotal for the successful reproduction of life in the Andes.

Featured Products

Put the gift of beautiful birth in her hands.

Give Brought to Earth by Birth, a collection of black and white photographs by Harriette Hartigan, one of the world's master birth photographers. It makes a beautiful gift for your midwife or doula, for expectant or new moms, for grandmothers and for anyone who loves babies and birth. And remember to order a copy for yourself!Order the book.

Cook delicious and wholesome meals for your whole family.

Whole Family Recipes—For the Childbearing Year & Beyond highlights foods that are especially needed by pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and their growing children. Taking a non-dogmatic and down-to-earth tone, the book focuses on incorporating vitamin- and mineral-rich foods and good quality fats into the diet. If you’re an expectant mom or new parent this book belongs in your kitchen. If you work with pregnant women, have copies in your library to share with your clients. Recipes include Cheesy Potato Pie, Baked Lentils and Oat and Dried Berry Bars. To Order

A way to work through grief and loss

Created as a healing journal for mothers who have lost their babies, Mending Invisible Wings is filled with healing words, drawings, poems and exercises. Each exercise includes an action, an affirmation and a self-nurturance activity designed to help the mother move through her grief. There are also plenty of blank pages where she can express her grief through words or pictures. If you have recently lost a baby, or if you know someone who has, Mending Invisible Wings could be an important step in the healing process. To Order

Learn Tricks from Expert Midwives

Sharing Midwifery Knowledge is packed with tried-and-true information that can expand your personal bag of tricks, enhance your education and encourage a natural approach to safe childbearing. Topics include Nutrition and Herbs, Natural Alternatives to Drugs and Suturing, The Dangers of Ultrasound, and Premature Rupture of Membranes. Order the book.

Do you work with laboring women?

If you do, you need Midwifery Today’s Second Stage Handbook. This book explains how to best serve women at this crucial stage. You’ll learn from expert practitioners as they reveal their observations on when to push, what works and choices available for the mother. The Second Stage Handbook is part of the Holistic Clinical Series. Order the book.

What is optimal fetal positioning?

Why is it important and how can you help your clients achieve it? You’ll learn this and more when you read Understanding and Teaching Optimal Foetal Positioning by Jean Sutton and Pauline Scott. Succinct and thorough, this manual includes brief descriptions of the various ways a fetus can present, information on how a fetus can be encouraged to rotate into the optimal position during later pregnancy and postures the mother should use or avoid during actual labor. Optimal Foetal Positioning features numerous black and white line drawings that illustrate and illuminate the information in the text and is a must-own for anyone who works with pregnant women. Click here.

Web Site Update

Read these book reviews from Midwifery Today newly posted to our Web site:

The Father’s Home Birth Handbook—by Leah Hazard
“Broken up into seven brief chapters, this book manages to hit the highlights—the who, what, when, where and why of homebirth—while unfolding the frustrations, fears, acceptance, joys and exhilaration felt by fathers who are helping their partners birth at home.”

Mending Invisible Wings: Healing From the Loss of Your Baby—by Mary Burgess
“From the beginning of this sensitive journal and spiced throughout are lovely black and white drawings. Even if a mama is too grief-stricken to read or write words at the beginning of her grief journey, she can still take in the insightful drawings.”

Learn about midwifery education!

Are you an aspiring midwife who’s looking for the right school? Are you a practicing midwife who would like learn more? Visit our Education Opportunities page to discover ways to start or continue your education.

Periglow, the best to support the perineum after birth. Periglow is a ready-to-use Swiss compress to promote healing the first weeks after giving birth. As a soak or bath. http://www.periglow.com

Florida School of Traditional Midwifery, Gainesville, Florida, seeking an Academic Director. Bachelor’s degree, experience in academic aspects of a school or training facility, knowledge of Midwifery Education, preferred. More information: http://www.midwiferyschool.org

Apprenticeship opportunity! Northern New Mexico Birth Center, nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, has an opening! Incredible hands-on experience! Become LM and CPM. www.nnmbirthcenter.org Join our team!

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Disclaimer

This publication is presented by Midwifery Today, Inc., for the sole purpose of disseminating general health information for public benefit. The information contained in or provided through this publication is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be, and is not provided as, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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Through networking and education, Midwifery Today's mission is to return midwifery care to its rightful position in the family, to make midwifery care the norm throughout the world, and to redefine midwifery as a vital partnership with women.